How would you feel if you were unexpectedly attacked and weren't able to fight back? This was the reality of more than 3,600 Americans when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. The day following the attack, the United States was forced to declare war on Japan, which ended up being the cause of millions of innocent lives all over. I feel that the United States had every right to defend their own country and attack Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Pearl Harbor was attacked on Sunday December 7th, 1941 by the Japanese military. The American military woke to a wave of planes that attacked the US Pacific Fleet. The first of two fleets consisted of 183 planes. The second wave arrived about an hour later and consisted of 167 planes. Altogether, the Japanese sank and damaged 188 American military aircrafts, eight navy battleships, three destroyers, three cruisers, and one minelayer. The Americans only damaged 29 Japanese aircrafts out of 350. There were 2,403 Americans killed, including 68 civilians and 1,178 wounded (Candis Reade, ezinearticles.com). After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States was forced to declare war on Japan the following day. Even though the attack was intended to neutralize the US Pacific Fleet, three days later, after Germany and Italy also declared war on Japan; the United States became fully involved with World War Two. If Japan hadn't attacked Pearl Harbor, the United States would not have entered World War Two.
On August 6th, 1945, the B-29 Enola Gay plane, flown by Colonel Paul Tibbets, was launched. At 8:15 am, the Enola Gay dropped a nuclear bomb over Hiroshima. The total number of deaths was estimated at about 90,000 people. Three days later on August 9th, 1945, another B-29 plane, flown by Major Charles W. Sweeney, carried another nuclear bomb and dropped it over Nagasaki.
The total number of residents killed may have been as many as 80,000. Taking lives in order to save lives is what the American military did....